petroleum engineering

petroleum engineering

After retiring from a 19-year U.S. Air Force career spent working on the electronics systems of intercontinental ballistic missiles, Wallace Frost Jr. enrolled at Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus to become something he had long wanted: a petroleum engineer. Little did the Uniontown native know that enrolling at the Fayette campus would bring him several other things he desired: love, marriage, and fatherhood.

The College of Earth and Mineral Sciences’ (EMS) graduate program in petroleum engineering tied for No. 5, improving from No. 7 in the last ranking, and the graduate program in materials engineering was rated No. 13 in the nation by U.S. News & World Report in its Best Graduate Schools 2017 edition.

The baobab tree, commonly called the tree of life, is a staple in many rural African communities. Every component of the tree is beneficial in some way – providing sustenance and income to the people in these communities. However, the tree’s fruit, made up of seeds, pulp and fiber, is difficult to process. The current method of using a mortar and pestle is very difficult and inefficient. For the last five years, Penn State students in the Engineering Leadership Development (ELD) minor have worked to alleviate this by designing and building a baobab-processing machine as their minor capstone project.

The Gas Flooding Joint Industry Project held its ninth annual meeting in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Oct. 29-30. The meeting was organized by the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences Energy Institute at Penn State in collaboration with the University of Texas at Austin.